New book about Scituate tells of residents who had an impact

Scituate Historical Society members Bob Gallagher, Mat Brown and Carol Miles co-authored a new book about more than 100 residents who, in Gallagher’s words, “threw a pebble and caused a ripple effect on the community.”

Lisa Berg was left to fend for herself in a strange country when her father and brothers, who had immigrated to Boston from Sweden, went back to sea with the Merchant Marine.

She ended up at the Appleton’s dairy farm in Scituate – a long journey from the city in the 1920s. She worked there for years, which allowed her to build a life from the ground up and adopt her orphaned nephew.

“She’s truly an only-in-America story, and she showed remarkable determination,” said Bob Gallagher, a Scituate Historical Society trustee and the caretaker of Scituate Lighthouse.

Berg is one of more than 100 residents featured in a new book, “Legendary Locals of Scituate,” which Gallagher co-authored with Scituate Historical Society members Mat Brown and Carol Miles.

“If there’s a highlight of the book for me, that’s the one. (Berg) has an amazing story,” Gallagher said.

The book is a collection of photographs of residents, including teachers, business owners and musicians, who left a mark on the town. It went on sale this week at the Little Red School House.

“Legendary Locals” is a new series by Arcadia Publishing, which also published the “Images of America” and “Then & Now” series, which consist of thousands of books about towns across the country.

Gallagher said Arcadia contacted historical society members to see if they were interested in putting together a book.

“The deal is essentially that the group has a deadline, (Arcadia) will put up the printing costs, and you do all the work,” Gallagher said.

The process was difficult, since there were only so many people who could be written about to fit in the book. Gallagher said they looked for people from all walks of life “who threw a pebble and caused a ripple effect on the community.”

“It’s all different arenas, like John Brady on the zoning board – it isn’t very glamorous, but it has a tremendous impact,” he said.

The group could use only high-quality photographs, which limited who was included. After the first draft, the publisher determined that 45 of 140 pictures were not usable.

“It was a chase to find the perfect pictures,” Gallagher said. “To be honest, I never, ever dreamed that it would ever be published because it was a standard I thought we would never reach.”

Gallagher said he has two thick binders of all the people they considered but couldn’t find a good enough picture of.

“We understand there are many more people who have impacted the town,” he said.